In Tuesday night's loss to the Florida Panthers, Patrik Laine was unable to register a point for the seventh consecutive game.
That ominous streak ties a career-high for the 22-year old veteran with 323 regular-season NHL games under his belt. Suffice it to say that, whatever the Blue Jackets are trying in order to activate the optimum version of Laine hasn't gone well.
I can't say I'm shocked. Before Laine played a game with the Blue Jackets, I suggested that Laine should play regularly on a line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Max Domi. That hasn't happened, and the trio has played just 0:55 (yes, 55 seconds) through 17 games (even strength). Instead, he's played with virtually every other combination of player(s), up to and including fourth line center Riley Nash.
There's no defending Domi, who has been ineffective, at best. At the same time, it frustrates me that two offensively gifted players who are struggling to produce offense (one a gifted sniper, the other a player whose calling card is his playmaking skills) haven't been given a chance to play (read: figure it out) together. Per NaturalStatTrick, the duo has played 22:03 together at 5v5 through 17 games (Note: Despite getting caved in during this small sample size, they actually outscored their opponents 1-0).
I understand why Tortorella chose to deploy Nash alongside Laine and Bjorkstrand on Tuesday night. Bjorkstrand is a well-rounded winger who can produce offensively and defend well. Nash, for all of his offensive shortcomings, is an excellent defender. The two of them should help 'shelter' Laine, defensively speaking. But in a perfect world, Laine would have the chance to play center with a player who can threaten offense. In some regards, this whole conversation builds around the concept of winning vs. developing in 2021. Do the Blue Jackets have a center that they trust to shelter Laine defensively that also can provide offense?
The bloom has fallen off the rose a bit for Jack Roslovic, who had his effort questioned by John Tortorella after Tuesday night's defeat. "I liked the lines; I didn’t like Jack,” Tortorella said. “I don’t think Jack competed hard enough, so we kind of moved things around in the third period. I’m hoping Jack understands how hard we have to play.”
Per DobberSports, no Blue Jackets trio has played more together than Roslovic, Laine, and Cam Atkinson. But in over 134 minutes of ice time, they've scored just three goals (while giving up seven). Atkinson and Laine haven't been effective as a duo, either, even when isolating their impacts without Roslovic.
That leaves a handful of other players who the Blue Jackets have played at both center and wing: Alexandre Texier, Nick Foligno, and Boone Jenner. Texier falls more closely into the Roslovic camp: a young player who is learning (to mostly negative results) center under harsh conditions. Meanwhile, Foligno and Jenner are more closely related to Nash, in the sense that they're veteran players who can chip in offense but may not have the playmaking chops to satisfy a player like Laine.
At the end of the day, perhaps the simple conclusion is that the Blue Jackets don't have the center on their roster that can optimize Laine. It doesn't take a long memory to remember the Blue Jackets roster with a first-year (with the team) Artemi Panarin that similarly lacked the quality center to complement their star player (Note: isn't it ironic that the player that they developed to play with Panarin, who left, was Pierre-Luc Dubois, who left in order to bring in Laine).
But if that is the conclusion, I'd much prefer to see the Blue Jackets at least attempt to try to make it work with Domi, Texier, or Roslovic, as opposed to Foligno, Jenner, or Nash. While the former may not be the long-term solution, the latter is certainly not.
